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The Kammerakademie Calw e. V. comprises a professional chamber orchestra, the Symphonic Youth Orchestra LaJeunesse, and a children’s orchestra.
When required, the chamber orchestra is extended to form a full symphony orchestra, and is well-known under the names Camerata 2000, Academia Amadeo, and Orchester der Kammerakademie Calw e. V. As is customary in chamber music, the orchestra usually performs without a conductor, thus creating the ensemble’s distinct, homogeneous sound. Symphonic works, like L.v. Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and the piano concertos by L.v. Beethoven and Frédéric Chopin, are also prepared and interpreted in the same collaborative manner. Study visits and concert tours in Germany, Europe, and the USA have fostered the orchestra’s musical development; further, concerts are played at regular intervals in Central Europe, and numerous professional chamber music ensembles have emerged from the Kammerakademie Calw e. V. Both the Symphonic Youth Orchestra LaJeunesse and the children’s orchestra rehearse frequently under supervision of the ensemble’s tutors, and give concerts in Germany and Switzerland; this has been awarded a first prize at the Landesorchesterwettbewerb (Federal Orchestra Competition) of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Originally, the Kammerakademie Calw e. V. was established as the Kammerorchester der Musikschule Calw, Baden-Württemberg. Since 1992, it is a non-profit, registered association.
The aim of the association is to convey the facets of music through manifold artistic and educational activities. This is accomplished through working with adolescents, through supporting young talents at the beginning of their career, and through a close collaboration between fully-trained musicians and ambitious non-professionals. In various projects, the classical repertoire as well as contemporary and popular music are accessed by means of a chamber music approach, always centered at an intuitive mode of expression.
The structure of the Kammerakademie Calw e. V. has developed slowly and with little fluctuation. Many members know each other since early youth, and from the LaJeunesse projects. It is because of this strong social cohesion that the uniquely homogeneous sound of the ensemble could evolve.
Numerous fellows are laurates of the German Jugend Musiziert Competition, study or teach at conservatories and music schools, and were/are members of well-respected orchestras like, for example, Württembergisches Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Furthermore, the ensemble is enriched by fellows who have not entered a professional career, but participate as versed amateurs in many projects.
The orchestra of the Kammerakademie Calw e. V. may be heard in public-service broadcasting productions (SWR) as well as on compact disc (publisher: Carus) with Peter Schindler’s scenic cantata Sonne, Mond und Sterne. In 2018, a compact disc with oratorios by Franz Danzi, Friedrich Ernst Fesca and Franz Liszt was released, for the first time, by the cpo label in cooperation with SWR.
The initiator and art director of the ensemble, Manfred Holder, received his music education from Prof. Jörg-Wolfgang Jahn (Karlsruhe, Germany), the Quartetto Italiano (Milan, Italy), the Melos Quartet (Stuttgart, Germany), and from the famous conductor Sergiu Celibidache. He is a violin teacher with students in Karlsruhe, Pforzheim, and Calw. As a chamber musician, he was a member of the Primavera Quartet and is currently fellow of the Hesse Quartet and the Kammerphilharmonie Karlsruhe. |
